CHTHONIC Show Off Badass New Album Artwork

Chthonic take artwork for their new album Bú-Tik to a whole new level of cool. Also, that's a real photograph.

Yeah, I was pretty shocked about that too. According to the band, that photo is a compilation of three different people, and since I can't possibly explain it any better than the band themselves, I present their explanation posted on their website–

The art design team has chosen to have an elder, a girl, and a child to be the models for the cover picture to represent the theme for the album, and visualize the idea of armed body and mind through special makeup and computer graphics.

Candidates for the roles of the elder and the child were quickly decided—Hsu Ching-fu, a clergyman from the Gikong Presbyterian Church and A-Chi, son of a well-known tattooist Ah-J, CHTHONIC band leader and bassist Doris said. Hsu was chosen because of the strong will that can be seen through his eyes, after decades of resistance against Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) reign of White Terror, while A-chi was chosen for his vigorousness and confidence, because he has been hanging around the live house The Wall since he was not even one year old.

However, after looking around for days, CHTHONIC still could not find the best candidate for the girl role in the cover picture. Hence, Doris decided to ask for girls who are “at least 160cm tall, skinny, with light skin, and are ok with full-body painting”. The ad quickly triggered heated discussion among fans, with many encouraging Doris to try it herself, but CHTHONIC insists on its tradition to show images related to the story recounted in the album instead of pictures of its members on the album cover.

Nearly a hundred people replied to the ad, and each of them is attractive and meets the criteria. It took Doris and the art design team several sleepless nights just to look at the candidates’ pictures—and finally picked Bu (小布) for the “zenness” in her expression.

Talk about taking pride in your work, huh? That's crazy dedication and the final product looks so great. Their new album is currently in the mixing stages.